{"id":532533,"date":"2026-05-22T07:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T05:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/?p=532533"},"modified":"2026-05-24T08:53:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T06:53:01","slug":"combining-neoliberalism-illiberalism-and-fascism-mode-demploi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/en\/policy\/combining-neoliberalism-illiberalism-and-fascism-mode-demploi\/","title":{"rendered":"How to combine neoliberalism, illiberalism and fascism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Illiberalism has established itself as one of the most widely used concepts for thinking about the mutations of the Western right. In a recently published essay, Rapha\u00ebl Demias-Morisset attempts to trace its intellectual contours and the political traditions it claims to encompass.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

At a time when Viktor Orb\u00e1n has just suffered a reassuring defeat, it's worth delving into the intellectual arcana of the illiberalism that the Hungarian president has worked so hard to embody and promote. Rapha\u00ebl Demias-Morisset's recently published essay on the subject, taken from his thesis, seemed to offer a good opportunity to come to grips with this concept with such uncertain contours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Too good, no doubt... Dismayed by the ongoing dismantling of liberal democracy, the author's ambition is certainly to shed light on the genesis of illiberalism in order to combat it more effectively, as he is honest enough to announce. However, instead of explaining the complex genealogy of this notion, often mixed up by some observers with populism, postliberalism or all the variations of the modern \u00abradical\u00bb right, he injects a new dose of confusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet his approach is not without appeal. Instead of exploring the idea of populism per se, he concentrates on the construction of illiberalism, which has its origins in the United States, in the failure of a conservatism he describes as \u00abmainstream\u00bb, but without going into much depth about what he means by this. It is precisely such approximations that make this book so uncomfortable to read. Anxious to give meaning to words, the author ends up emptying them of all substance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spectre of fascism<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, his entire thesis is condensed in the permeability of the boundaries supposed to separate the various ideologies claimed by today's rightists. Drawing on authors such as Patrick Deneen and Yoram Hazony, and concluding with Curtis Yarvin, Rapha\u00ebl Demias-Morisset draws a clear intellectual link between the neo-liberal conservative revolution of the 70s and 80s, spearheaded by Reagan and Thatcher, and the much-criticized illiberalism of today. In the end, the specter of fascism looms - surprise, surprise - as the culmination of this sinister journey...<\/p>\n\n\n\n